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Crytek releases CryEngine on Steam for $9.90/month

Crytek’s CryEngine showcase trailer for GDC 2014. The developer has just released the engine – used on its own titles like Ryse: Son of Rome – on Steam on a pay-as-you-go basis for less than $10 a month.

Crytek has released its CryEngine game engine on Steam for under $10 per month – and won’t take a cut of the royalties when developers ship games using it.

Users can subscribe to the product on a pay-as-you-go basis for $9.90 a month, discounted to $9.00 a month if you take out a three-month subscription, or $8.33 a month if you subscribe for six months at a time.

Available to all game developers
When the news was announced in March this year, it was originally pitched as a deal for indie developers. That now seem to have expanded to include developers of all sizes – those creating conventional games, at least.

The EULA for the Steam release forbids use on scientific simulations, architectural projects and military training or serious games, but makes no distinction as to a studio’s size or turnover.

For the money, you get access to the latest build of the engine, including the Sandbox editor. You don’t get direct support, beyond that provided by the engine’s user community and the online documentation.

Priced lower than Unreal Engine
The release makes CryEngine around $10 a month cheaper than Epic Games’ Unreal Engine: released earlier this year for $19 a month. More significantly, Epic also charges 5% of the gross revenue when a game ships.

Both are attractive deals, and a testament to the recent growth of the indie games market. We’d be interested to see subscriber figures, particularly in comparison to the free version of Unity, if any emerge in due course.